xianxia

I've been drawn to xianxia for years now. It's this specific flavor of Chinese fantasy—immortals cultivating power, ascending through realms, defying heaven itself. Bamboo forests and flying swords. Spiritual energy and impossible transformations. It sounds ridiculous when I describe it like that, but there's something compelling about the progression, the structure of it all.

The stories follow a pattern: someone weak becomes strong through relentless cultivation. They face increasingly powerful enemies, break through bottlenecks, and climb toward immortality. It's power fantasy, sure, but there's a meditative quality to the endless grinding, the methodical advancement through ranks and stages.

What really got me hooked were the games. Xianxia MMOs and mobile games lean hard into that cultivation loop—gathering resources, breaking through realms, ascending. It's progression systems all the way down. Some of them are blatant cash grabs, pay-to-win nightmares that prey on the same impulses that got me into MIR4. I know this. I've fallen for it anyway.

There's something about watching numbers go up, about the promise of reaching the next realm, that short-circuits rational thinking. The games are designed for it—daily check-ins, limited-time events, the fear of falling behind. It's the same trap every time, just wrapped in cultivation aesthetics.

Still, I keep coming back. Maybe it's nostalgia for those early days of discovering the genre. Maybe it's the systems themselves—I've always been drawn to intricate progression mechanics. Or maybe I just like the fantasy of methodical improvement, even when it's digital and ultimately meaningless.

The best xianxia games respect your time. The worst ones consume it. I'm still figuring out which ones are which.